Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I again thank the witnesses who came in today. I thank them for their courage and for the way they have united together, from Limerick to Clare to Tipperary. From what we can see, the people who are at the coalface of this will understand where it needs to happen and what needs to happen, which is the safety of the public. We can understand this. It has been going on for far too long. As I said, we have had the CEO of UHL in here. The matter has been before the health committee since 2022. It has been going on since the hospital was made a hospital of excellence, which was what created the problem. It never catered for a rise in population. Any time you are doing anything, whether you are in business, no matter what business you do, or whatever else, you do projections, and your projections are based on the turnover of your business and on the population within the area. The hospital of excellence, when this was set out, did not take those factors into account. We can see that an 8% rise in County Limerick alone has created another pressure on UHL. I have said this before and I will say it again: it is not a reflection on the staff within UHL or the work they do. They go above and beyond. It is the conditions they have to work in, which are not safe.